The Public Intellectual Strikes Again

Oprah Winfrey is confirmed as Michael Eric Dyson’s first guest on his new public radio show, the African American Public Radio Consortium announced on Tuesday. Other confirmed guests to appear in the show’s first two weeks include Sean “P. Diddy” Combs,Spike Lee, Hill Harper, Donna Brazile, Samuel L. Jackson and Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach for America, the consortium said.

“Michael has a broad range of relationships,” Loretta Rucker, executive director of the consortium, told Journal-isms. The show “will be a platform” for Dyson, the academic, author, talk-show pundit and minister, to use those contacts.

As reported on Monday, the consortium, which sparked “The Tavis Smiley Show,” its successor “News & Notes” and “Tell Me More” with Michel Martin, all on National Public Radio, is launching the Dyson show on Monday in partnership with Baltimore’s WEAA-FM, the Morgan State University station. It is to air initially in 18 markets, mainly on the radio stations at historically black colleges and universities.

Unlike the previous shows, however, Dyson’s show will not be produced by NPR, which will have a role only in distributing the show. There will be no reporters or other journalists. But distribution will not be limited to NPR stations, Rucker said. “This is the exact outcome we were hoping for,” she said. “We are creating a whole new model.” The hour-long show will be produced by WEAA in Baltimore and recorded at XM Studios in Washington.

Dyson’s show will have a smaller budget than the NPR efforts, Rucker said. The daily feed will go out at 1 p.m., and a Web site, www.dysonshow.org, will be created for online listeners, Rucker said.

Am I the only one who realizes that all but two of the cities in that list are home to HBCUs?

Um, AverageBro gives out Cyber Capri Suns for web freebies for those who get answers right, so my prize’ll be that I’ll forward a Borders coupon to you–something that you can actually use–for the person that can correctly name the HBCUs in all of the respective cities.

Yes, it’s a long list, but I get hella Borders coupons with up to 30% off in store prices.